New York Times op-ed on climate change provides a number of positive actions, but says by far the most effective thing an individual can do is fulfill their transportation needs in a fuel-efficient vehicle. United States drivers have a disproportionate effect on global warming, due to the number of miles driven and poor average miles per gallon of its cars, but have a wide variety of new vehicle options that do much better.

Tesla was accused of racism, "excessive mandatory overtime", and constant pressure to work faster. "In 2015, Blue Apron appeared to violate a litany of OSHA regulations, ranging from wiring to chemical storage", which it claims to have quickly rectified. Amazon warehouse employees say hours are long, breaks few, and fulfillment demands high.

Good and Cheap food: a cookbook developed to meet nutritional
needs for people on food stamps, but with great ideas for all budgets. Emphasizes
fruits and vegetables, innovative variations, and frugality that allows for
a bit of luxury along with a lot of fun and great eating. The entire book is
free online. To enlarge text, hold down the ctrl key while pressing the plus
key.

This site provides information for consumers about how their spending habits affect human rights, animal rights and welfare, and the environment.

Responsibleconsumer.net wants to make sure wherever possible that all links posted on its site are safe. Beginning 2017 March 18 all links will be checked at the Google Transparency Report, whenever available, before being posted online

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Students are leading activities to protest the lack of control of guns that were used in the rash of recent school shootings. The website "What to Know About March for Our Lives and Other Student-Led Gun Cpontrol Protests" gives details, beginning with a day-long boycott of Amazon, Apple, and FedEx on March 1. On March 14 there will be a 17-minute national school walkout--one minute "or every person killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School." On March 24, starting at 10 a.m., there will be a march in Washington, D.C. calling for a bill to address gun violence in the U.S.

"It's a database designed to help corporate seafood buyers assess the risk of forced labor, human trafficking and hazardous child labor in the seafood they purchase."

Reports have indicated such abuses in Thailand's fishing industry for years. Supplier guidelines aimed at reducing such abuses have been toughened, but violations have been hard for retailers to trace. Fishing occurs far from shore, often out of sight, while exploitation and abuse on vessels stem from very complex social and economic dynamics."

"But many retailers are already skittish about talking openly about slavery in the seafood industry, and it's unclear how they'll address these issues with their own customers. Kroger, Safeway, Whole Foods, Hy-Vee, Walmart and Red Lobster did not respond or declined our requests for an interview for this story."

Workers in the Thai fishing industry are often migrants. According to Michael Sullivan, reporting from Bnakkok, migrants have no rights under Thai labor law.

"...Residents and lawyers took on the chemical giant to expose the danger of the chemical C8, found in Teflon and countless household products—from stain- and water-resistant apparel to microwave popcorn bags to dental floss. The chemical has now been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancers."

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has published a report advocating limits on use of certain pesticides due to harm they cause to "dozens of endangered and threatened species such as salmon and orca whales." One of the pesticides, chlorpyrifos, "can hinder the development of children's brains, even at tiny levels of exposure", according to professional studies. Dow Chemical Company, a seller of chlorpyrifos, has lobbied the Trump administration against limits on chlorpyrifos use, saying the studies are flawed. Use of the chemical on fruits and vegetables had been banned in the Obama administration, but the ban has been reversed in the Trump administration.

On Jan. 9 ResponsibleConsumer.net reported that Microsoft had recalled some patches for computer chip bugs because they they caused additional problems rather than solving the original problems caused by the malware itself. Since then hackers have exploited the situation by posting malicious "patches" tucked into secure web pages (those with addresses that start with https:// rather than http://). The pages themselves are secure but the links contained in the pages are malicious. Legitimate patches will not be sent in an email you have not requested.

Microsoft advises not installing patches for the bugs at this time. New patches are currently being tested.

"Disease investigators at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) have traced a rare strain of Salmonella to frozen shredded coconut, prompting the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the distributor this month to issue a multistate recall."

"The state Department of Corrections lifted the ban after the ACLU chapter on Monday demanded that access to the book be granted to inmates in the state, which the group said has the worst U.S. black-white incarceration disparity."

"In New York City overall, private sanitation trucks killed seven people in 2017. By contrast, city municipal sanitation trucks haven't caused a fatality since 2014." Private trucks haul trash from businesses at night and city trucks haul residential trash during the day. Working conditions for all garbage truck drivers and helpers are unenviable, but pay and working conditions for private truck workers tends to be much worse than for city workers. Pressure to meet difficult or impossible deadlines ads to the stress and safety issues. "Waste companies 'routinely violate OSHA [the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration] requirements,' according to the 2016 study by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health." Much seriously broken equipment--the article mentions safety latches for holding in garbage and containers, brakes, steering, transmissions--on trucks have been reported by drivers and denied by company owners.

"Waste and recycling work is the fifth most fatal job in America -- far more deadly than serving as a police officer or a firefighter. Loggers have the highest fatality rate, followed by fishing workers, aircraft pilots and roofers."

The flaws, called Meltdown and Spectre, are in the computer hardware, so computers such as Chromebooks that are usually safe are still vulnerable. Mobile devices are vulnerable as well. "An attacker can exploit these CPU vulnerabilities to expose extremely sensitive data in your protected kernel memory, including passwords, cryptographic keys, personal photos, emails, or any other data on your PC."

Patches have been issued from computer operating system manufacturers such as Apple and Microsoft, but in some cases the patches could cause a slowdown of the computer.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) "estimates there's potentially somewhere between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic Refuge's 1002 area. Those are huge numbers."

Advantages of the 1002 area include that "The oil potential lies on shore â€” potentially an easier target than more technically complicated and expensive drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Alaska is also in a politically stable country."

Questions remain as to whether oil companies will want to drill in Alaska,"when you can see billions of barrels in resource being added on an annual basis in West Texas."

"GM faced criminal charges and has paid legal settlements totaling more than $2 billion after conceding in 2014 that it failed for more than a decade to recall millions of vehicles with defective switches now linked to 124 deaths, despite internal evidence of a safety problem. The switch can slip from the run position, cutting engine power and disabling safety features including air bags."

A looming trial could result in GM paying $1 billion in stock to settle the case, but it might be settled before then or challenged in court after a verdict is reached.

Some families have moved out of their homes. Conflicts of interest may exist with elected officials who have contracts with wind companies and vote on issues affecting those companies. Some opponents of wind turbines have felt pressured, harassed, disrespected and misrepresented by wind companies and neighbors who benefit financially from them.

"A six-month GateHouse Media investigation found that wind developers representing some of the world's biggest energy companies divide communities and disrupt the lives of residents forced to live in the shadow of their industrial wind farms."

Representatives of the wind industry denied any link between wind turbines and physical illness. They say detractors are few compared to supporters.

Researchers disagree on the effects of low-frequency sound waves produced by the turbines. Some say they "stimulate parts of the inner ear responsible for balance, motion and spatial orientation and that they provoke symptoms similar to motion sickness". Others deny a direct link, saying complainants are sincere, but different people have different sensitivities and there are many possible causes for the symptoms.

"The report comes just over a year since Wells Fargo paid a $185 million fine for "widespread illegal" sales practices involving fees on 2 million deposit and credit-card accounts opened without customers' knowledge."

"'This is a relatively new pipeline. It is supposed to have an operating life of more than 100 years and it was supposed to be a state-of-the-art pipeline construction. It appears that it is not,' South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) member Gary Hanson told Aberdeen News."

The CIW is an organization of Florida tomato pickers that formed in the 1990s in the face of barriers to unionization. It prevents farms that participate in its Fair Food Plan from abusing farmworkers rights. The Plan has been remarkably effective in improving the wages and working conditions of 35,000 workers.

Wendy's refuses to pay dues to the CIW and claims "its own corporate code of conduct" makes the Fair Food Plan unnecessary.

"Hackers stole the personal data of 57 million customers and drivers from Uber Technologies Inc., a massive breach that the company concealed for more than a year. This week, the ride-hailing firm ousted its chief security officer and one of his deputies for their roles in keeping the hack under wraps, which included a $100,000 payment to the attackers."

Architect Rex Hohlbein of Seattle founded "Facing Homelessness, a nonprofit that directly supports homeless individuals". He and his daughter started the BLOCK Project, "a new nonprofit that aims to house the homeless in high-quality backyard cottages. The organization would build and own the houses, helping with formalities like planning permission and insurance -- while homeowners would lend space for the tiny homes and welcome the new inhabitants into the neighborhood".

Hohlbein sees inclusive communities rather than government and nonprofits as the main solution to the problem of homelessnes. He says "There are people with severe mental health issues, aggression problems, severe violent offenders, Level 3 sex offenders -- it's a small category of the homeless, but it is a category. The thing that we're excited about is that when the BLOCK Project takes a giant chunk out of the homeless issue, we will be freeing up so many professionals to give their attention to people who really need that kind of care."

2015 Nov. 15democracynow.com

"Reporting from COP23 in Bonn, Germany, Democracy Now! travels to the nearby blockade of the Hambach coal mine, the largest open-pit coal mine in Europe. Activists say the mine extracts an extremely dirty form of coal called lignite, also known as brown coal, which causes the highest CO2 emissions of any type of coal when burned. For more than five years, they have been fighting to shut down the mine and to save the remaining forest from being cut down to make way for the expanding project. Only 10 percent of the ancient forest remains."

"In the weeks following the hurricane, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) signed two highly dubious contracts with private U.S. firms to help with the rebuilding of the island's utilities infrastructure."

"The more notorious of the two deals was a $300 million contract with a little-known Montana company called Whitefish Energy...."

Four and a half hours after the problem was discovered, "TransCanada announced that more than 200,000 gallons of oil had spilled from the existing portion of the Keystone system in Marshall County, South Dakota."

Environmentalists argue that all pipelines leak at some point, that they threaten clean water and soil, and that the only safe way to deal with fossil fuels is to keep them in the ground.

"ETP, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, intends to build a 162-mile pipeline across southern Louisiana. If built, the Bayou Bridge will be the last leg, carrying oil fracked in North Dakota to Louisiana."

"The guide scores 17 of the world's leading electronics companies based on their sustainability in 3 critical areas; reduction of emissions through renewable energy, use of recycled materials, and elimination of hazardous chemicals. Within each impact area, companies are graded on transparency, commitment, performance and advocacy efforts."

"American Apparel" is now mostly made in Honduras, and the "ethical jobs" the American Apparel website touts do not seem ethical to the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) in Washington, DC. Employees complain about firings due to job-related health problems and "mandatory work shifts longer than the legal maximum limit, illegal dismissals of employees involved in unions - including the dismissal of a pregnant woman, as well as consistent harassment and verbal abuse targeted at employees."

"The NAACP for several months now has been monitoring a pattern of disturbing incidents reported by African-American passengers, specific to American Airlines. In light of these confrontations, we have today taken the action of issuing national advisory alerting travelers--especially African Americans--to exercise caution, in that booking and boarding flights on American Airlines could subject them disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions. This travel advisory is in effect beginning today, October 24, 2017, until further notice."

"In the past year, China's Ministry of Environment has sent inspectors to 30 provinces, where they've reprimanded, fined, or charged officials in more than 80,000 factories with criminal offenses. Entire swaths of Eastern China have halted production, prompting some companies to move entire supply chains to countries like India and Bangladesh to meet their orders."

Native American woman activist: "I think that Europe is ready--because at this point the United States is not going to do this with the current administration. Europe is ready to lead the world, if they want to, in a green path and one that upholds Indigenous peoples' rights and human rights."

....

"Divestment is a way to obtain accountability and do it in a way that also invests in our future. When we take our money out of Wall Street, we put it into community banks, into green banks, into credit unions that fund growth in the community."

"On September 19, San Francisco filed suit against five of the nation's largest oil companies demanding they pay for the updates the city needs to protect its residents against climate change. The suit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, argues that the corporations--Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP--promoted fossil fuels as 'environmentally responsible and essential to human well-being' amid multiple warnings that the planet was in danger."

Commenter compares supermarket offerings in a New York City neighborhood with $26,410 medium income and 2.4% white population with offerings in a supermarket of the same chain in a New York City neighborhood with $46,210 medium income and 21.6% white population. Choices in the latter were much more abundant and healthy. Choices in the former "institutionalized a general narrative about the inferiority of certain members of our population that persists in our society."

Experts differ on whether it is better to leave the weapons in place or remove them. Information from a greater variety of sites is needed.

"...Harry Craig, a senior remedial project manager for the US Environmental Protection Agency, with 15 years expertise in underwater munitions under his belt,... explains that chemicals break down and react differently in different environments. Plus, steel corrodes at different rates depending on water depth, salinity and temperature, as well as shell thickness. Some sea-dumped munitions could continue leaking potentially deadly chemicals into the environment for over 100 years, according to some estimates."

"Beyond ocean dumping, experts point to a lack of action concerning munitions dumped in bodies of water -- ponds, lakes, rivers and estuaries -- within the continental US, from activities like shore-based gunnery practice, research activities and ship and aerial bombardment. A combination of high cleanup costs and lack of adequate oversight explain why the DoD has failed to remediate these sites, said Steve Pollack, an Illinois licensed attorney who co-authored the CDC report published earlier this year." TheGreat Lakes are one large example.

Leaking munitions have been known to harm fishermen and have the potential to harm surrounding environments. Some have been found in seafood. Mustard gas "remains in the deep-marine environment for decades after munitions disposal."

The CPSC responded to "a petition filed by two public interest groups, Earthjustice and the Consumer Federation of America," regarding the organohalogen class of flame retardants. Organophalogens are "found in the bodies of 97% of Americans says the Center for Disease Control."

"The CPSC directed the commission's staff to begin the rulemaking process to prohibit the sale of four categories of consumer products if they contain any organohalogen flame retardant."

"One of the [many] groups petitioning for the ban was the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). Firefighter organizations argue that not only do organohalogen flame retardants not provide a fire safety benefit in products doused in them, but, in fact, such products emit more toxic gases when they do burn, threatening the health and safety of fire fighters and other first responders."

Dr. Arlene Blum of the Green Science Policy Institute said, "This historic ruling can prevent the common practice of banning a harmful chemical only to replace it with a similar chemical that causes similar health problems. It will set a precedent of regulating chemicals by class and can prevent harm from exposure to the entire chemical class."

"The seven-page suit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice claimed that the housing authority did not make accommodations for disabled tenants, and that employees made unwelcome comments about female tenants' bodies and appearance."

Eight residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died after an electrical failure following Hurricane Irma. A criminal investigation is ongoing. The nursing home says it contacted Florida Power and Light, which "refused to speed up its response to senior living facilities". Florida Power and Light says "the county never listed nursing homes as critical facilities in power outages." The county "said that they did that because Florida Power & Light guidelines don't have nursing homes as critical infrastructure facilities." Hmmm....

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are looking into possible violations of insider trading laws after exposure of Equifax's credit information on millions of consumers.

Equifax has blamed the exposure on a website problem, but others blame it on Equifax's failure to install security updates on time. Whatever the reason, "Equifax's Chief Financial Officer and two other top executives dumped $1.8 million in company stock shortly before the company claims it discovered the breach. The public wasn't notified until six weeks later."

Also under investigation is Equifax's requirement after the breach was made public that customers "agree to a forced-arbitration clause, preventing them from joining a class action suit against the company." After intense criticism, Equifax said the requirement did "not apply to 'the cyber security incident'".

Equifax, one of the largest U.S. credit reporting bureaus, has said "that thieves may have stolen the personal information of 143 million Americans in one of the largest hacks ever."

The Consumer section of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website says "Here are the facts, according to Equifax. The breach lasted from mid-May through July. The hackers accessed people's names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver's license numbers. They also stole credit card numbers for about 209,000 people and dispute documents with personal identifying information for about 182,000 people. And they grabbed personal information of people in the UK and Canada too."

The FTC site tells you how to find out whether your information was exposed and if so what to do about it. However, a reading of the comments from consumers suggests the process may be confusing, broken or flawed.

A lot of consumers were confused by a fake phishing site (since taken down), described by npr.org. The site "was set up by software engineer Nick Sweeting to educate people rather than steal their information" by showing how easy it was to impersonate the real site. People were even sent to the fake site by tweets on Equifax's own Twitter account. Sweeting said Equifax should have prevented this by being consistent about using their original domain name (equifax.com) instead of setting up a separate domain for people to check whether they had been hacked. The legitimate site is equifaxsecurity2017.com; the fake site was securityequifax2017.com.

Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) website says "ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science." Hayhoe says Exxon is not by any means alone in this practice. She raises the question for scientists: "Which is most important -- the benefit of the research and education, or the rejection of tainted funds?"

In a win for environmentalists, the NEB has added consideration of "the impact of pollution caused by the production and consumption of the oil to be shipped by an operator" to "pollution caused during pipeline construction and operations".

The proposed pipeline would transport tar sands oil. TransCanada is also behind the Keystone XL pipeline.

The tribe wants federal, rather than weaker state rules to apply to the permitting process.

The location of the proposed mine borders the massive Menominee river system, which forms the border between Wisconsin and Michigan and supports large populations of fish. "Extracting metals from sulfide ores can produce highly toxic sulfuric acid." The acid can then drain into the water.

A wetland permit would still have to be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but the EPA has traditionally rejected tribal concerns in favor of state authority.

Tara Hrouska, an Ojibwe who is national campaigns director for Honor the Earth, says the focus on Greenpeace is a way to avoid naming the principal protesters, who are Native American. She says the suit is paternalistic and misleading in that it alleges indigenous protesters are being led by environmentalist organizations which had a relatively minor role in the protests, rather than leading the protests themselves.

Consumers benefit in short term from lower Whole Foods prices, but consumer rights groups worry the move could enable Amazon to gain a monopoly on groceries. By aggressive price cutting Amazon could drive smaller stores that offer fresh and organic foods out of business, allowing it to raise prices in the long term. Amazon also brings a huge boost in advertising to Whole Foods because the owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, also owns the Washington Post.

Rights groups also worry consumers may have fewer choices about where and how their food is produced as Amazon shifts from local organic farmers to big industrial operations. Amazon has "a really opaque supply chain"...."We're concerned that when Amazon buys the reputation of Whole Foods, it will be able to sell what look like organic groceries, but might be counterfeits, basically, on their website, because they'll have the patina of the Whole Foods freshness on the website" says Patrick Woodal, Research Director and Senior Policy Advocate for Food & Water Watch.

A further concern is the rapidity with which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved the merger. Complications of the merger do not appear to have been considered. For example, price cuts with resulting cuts in compensation to small farmers may make it harder for small farmers to sell to Amazon Fresh Delivery.

Co-author of the Harvard study Naomi Oreskes says Exxon Mobil and others worked to sow doubt about climate change and against control of greenhouse gas emissions even while their own scientists were saying there was convincing evidence for human-caused climate change.

Poland Spring brand bottled water is manufactured in Maine, USA by a subsidiary of Nestle Waters. The source of the water is the subject of a lawsuit that claims "Not one drop of Poland Spring Water emanates from a water source that complies with the Food and Drug Administration definition of spring water...."

"According to the Food and Drug Administration, spring water must come from an underground source and flow naturally to the earth's surface. But spring water doesn't have to be literally collected at the spring - it can also be pumped out from a hole in the ground. A spokeswoman for Nestle Waters North America said its water meets all federal and state guidelines for spring water."

"Energy Transfer Partners' controversial $4.3 billion Rover pipeline has more negative inspection reports than any other major interstate natural gas pipeline built in the last two years, according to a new Bloomberg analysis."

Energy Transfer Partners is also the parent of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline being resisted by the Sioux Native American tribe of North Dakota as potentially interfering with its access to clean water and violating its rights as a sovereign nation.

An Exxon Mobil refinery in the mostly African-American Charlton-Pollard section of Beaumont, Texas regularly releases toxic chemicals into the air that smell of rotten eggs and cause headaches and respiratory symptoms. Furthermore, "the refinery emits carcinogens, and several studies have shown an increased incidence of cancer in people living near these facilities." Residents complained to the EPA that because the neighborhood was mostly black, the excessive toxicity constituted a civil rights violation. They received a promise to investigate, but as happened with many other complainants, no investigation took place for years and no effective remedy was put in place.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reported that the EPA does as little as possible to quiet suers and "never seems to reach any substantive decisions on whether a federal recipient has violated" the Civil Rights Act. Such neglect has persisted under several presidents. President Donald Trump has weakened environmental regulations, making pollution for communities like Charlton-Pollard likely to get even worse. At the same time, "Exxon Mobil is planning to expand its Beaumont operations yet again." Trump even boasts that his policies have enabled the growth of Exxon Mobil, which has gained 122% in earnings since his inauguration. Owners of property close to the Exxon Mobil refinery in Charlton-Pollard, however, have seen the their own property values decline severely due to pollution.

"Both African-Americans and Latinos are more likely than whites to live near the country's 149 refineries. One 2012 study from Yale looked at 14 toxins in air pollution and found that African-Americans had higher exposure levels than whites for 13 of those compounds, while Latinos had the highest levels of pollution overall."

"The property owners question how being forced to hand over their property to a private, for-profit company building an oil pipeline benefits the public interest."

They also say "the pipeline doesn't just impact property owners but also those living in affected watersheds and the blast zone of potential explosions." If they are successful, there could be new discussions affecting a broad range of eminent domain cases about what constitutes "public good" as a condition of eminent domain.

Ads that achieve top places in search engine results can be misleading, as can articles people stumble upon in social media when the article is designed to sell rather than inform. When such an article contains medical advice, it can be very dangerous. "Content marketing -- corporate advertising disguised as articles, videos and information -- is being systematically manufactured on an industrial scale."

Marketing content can be mingled with genuine information, making it hard to tell which is which. "Many freelance journalists, writers and other creatives are also being forced to turn to content writing to supplement their income."

The listing is the latest legal setback for the seeds and chemicals company, which has faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer said that it is "probably carcinogenic" in a controversial ruling in 2015.

Animal studies have linked the chemicals to reproductive and development and allergy problems and "there is nascent evidence that the impacts may extend to humans as well". Widespread use in personal care and building products may have led to resistance of bactera to these and other antibiotic chemicals.

Mouse embryos in rooms where certain kinds of disinfectants "called quaternary ammonium compounds, or 'quats'," had been used had 15 times the number of neural tube defects as before the disintectants were used. Neural tube defects are defects of the brain and spinal cord, such as spina bifida and anencephaly (absence of parts of the brain and skull). The effects were observed even when only father mice, not mothers, were exposed, and lasted for months after use of the disinfectants had stopped.

Team leaders can earn up to $26/hour. In aaddition, "Chick-fil-A offers leadership training and management advancement opportunities as well as an aggressive scholarship program." Nice for the humans, but what about the chickens? Not so nice.

584 times the legal limit of hexavalent chromium, "made infamous by the environmental activist and 2000 movie of the same name, "Erin Brockovich", spilled into Burns Waterway and "forced the closure of several Lake Michigan beaches and Indiana American Water's intake in Ogden Dunes".

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said this week that a California Exxon refinery explosion in 2015 could have been catastrophic. Chair Vanessa Allen Sutherland recommended steps to prevent a recurrence of the explosion but the CSB has "no authority to compel their adoption". Exxon says it has implemented all but two of the recommendations and has plans in place to address the other two, but the CSB says Exxon has ignored many of their requests for more information.

"Ms Golloher is being represented by the same New York-based lawyer working on behalf of 19 other claimants alleging gender and race discrimination at the right-wing news network over a period stretching back more than eight years."

The Corps of Engineers lawyer Damon Roberts refused a Freedom of Information request because "The referenced document contains information related to sensitive infrastructure that if misused could endanger people's lives and property".

A report by the Fair Labor Association cited illegally long hours, pay at or below minimum wage, lack of legally mandated insurance coverage, no legally mandated contribution to a housing fund, and safety concerns.

Conditions for workers on Trump's multi-million-dollar fashion line seem out of synch with her upcoming book Women Who Work and endorsement of her father U.S. President Donald Trump's call to buy and hire American.

Other brands made by the contractor, G-III Apparel Group, include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

Three manufacturers of the group of pesticides, including Dow, wrote to U.S. cabinet heads asking that regulations on use of the chemicals be removed. Studies from the past four years have been "expected to result in new limits on how and where the highly toxic pesticides can be used".

Dow has spent many millions of dollars on enhancing its considerable political power. The new Trump administration head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has shown more willingness than the previous administration to relax regulations. He "announced last month he was reversing an Obama-era effort to bar the use of Dow's chlorpyrifos pesticide on food after recent peer-reviewed studies found that even tiny levels of exposure could hinder the development of children's brains."

The recall by Conagra Brands is voluntary, in response to "a supplier who informed the company of the potential presence of Salmonella in a raw material used in the chili seasoning." No salmonella has actually been found in the product, however.

The leak follows on the heels of an oil spill. "Reports this morning confirm that the leak has stopped, but the risk to wildlife is unknown. These platforms were installed in 1966 and aging infrastructure and severe tides in the Cook Inlet make them vulnerable to incidents. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has also repeatedly cited Hilcorp for violating safety regulations for its oil and gas operations in the state."

"In a letter sent to the White House on March 22 – days before President Donald Trump signed an executive order rolling back Barack Obama's climate legacy – Exxon told the administration that the Paris agreement is an 'effective framework for addressing the risks of climate change' and that the U.S. is 'well positioned to compete' under the deal, according to CNN Money."

EuroCan Manufacturing is voluntarily recalling Lot Number 84 consisting of it's individually shrink-wrapped, 6-pack, 12-pack and 25-pack bags of Barnsdale Farms, HoundsTooth and Mac's Choice Pig Ears because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella."

"Officials from Enbridge Energy Partners insisted on the structural safety of its 64-year-old pipelines that pass under the Straits of Mackinac even though a company-commissioned study found that the lines' protective coating has deteriorated in some areas."

"The tribe has argued in court that the pipeline crosses sacred land, was approved by the government without adequate consultation, and would contaminate its water supply." U.S. Native American tribes are legally sovereign nations.
"Last November, the US Army Corps of Engineers halted the construction of the $3.8bn pipeline.

"But in January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the agency to 'review and approve' the project 'in an expedited manner'. He also cleared the way for the controversial Keystone XL project."

Samsung's "de facto leader, Lee Jae-yong, and four top lieutenants formally denied all charges against them as a South Korean court opened a trial into a corruption scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye."

"The recall was initiated after the company received customer reports of glass found in some of these products. All products have been removed from store shelves and destroyed." Click on the link above for details.

TheInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says "tiny plastic particles washed off products such as synthetic clothes and car tyres could contribute up to 30% of the" plastic pollution in the oceans in the world.

Current "expiration" and "sell by" dates do not always mean food is unsafe after those dates. They are more likely to indicate when the food tastes best.

"Expiration dates on food are not required by any federal law, although some states require such dates on meat or milk. As a food product passes its "expiration" date, it may get stale, and some products, like milk, may go sour. But according to food safety experts, most spoiled foods, though unpalatable, aren't particularly hazardous."

The ingredient, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) or C8, has been linked to several types of cancer (see cancer.org. It may be found in high levels in drinking water from chemical plants. More research is needed to prove cause and effect, but Dupont has been accused of covering up evidence, including its own research.

Nonstick coatings made from Teflon are not considered a significant source of C8.

Monsanto "plans to challenge the ruling and insists on the safety of glyphosate, which is the most widely applied agricultural chemical in the world." Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is advocating for California's position.

Starbucks plans to hire 10,000 refugees after Trump executive order that "suspends the arrival of all refugees for at least 120 days, Syrian refugees indefinitely and bars citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days."

People behind the robots can use the recording to sign you up for things you don't want and could be dangerous. A one-word answer to an innocent-sounding question can get you into trouble. The article tells what to do if this happens to you, but to prevent it from happening in the first place, just hang up. Don't say anything.

When some rubber toys get water inside, they can grow mold. Water may enter through a small hole that makes the toy squeezable. This is apparently what happened in the case of French company Vuilli's popular Sophie the Giraffe, often used for teething babies. The story went viral and caused a lot of worry for parents, but doctors say exposure to mold is virtually inevitable because it is ubiquitous in the environment. It is not likely to cause harm unless the amount of mold in the environment is excessive or the person is allergic to it.

"Investigators say Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and the scion of the one of the largest companies in the world, helped improperly direct company money to the confidant of President Park Geun-hye in order to curry favor with the government.

"That confidant is now at the center of a criminal investigation and ongoing political scandal, and the president is awaiting a trial by a constitutional court on whether a resounding impeachment vote in parliament will result in her official removal."

"Prosecutors allege that Lee directed funds to Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil, and in return won support from the administration for a controversial merger between two company affiliates."

Three Takata executives have been indicted for falsifying data for the sake of profits, knowing about the risks. "16 deaths and 100 injuries worldwide" have resulted. "Most major auto manufacturers have been forced to recall vehicles because of the defect, including General Motors, Honda, BMW and Tesla, in what has been described as the largest-ever auto safety recall."

"The company collects 30 percent of the revenue of third-party apps on its store, with the balance going to the developer, in a closed system in which Apple controls which apps can run on an iPhone, according to court records."

"The courts have yet to address the complaints of the app purchasers, who allege that Apple prohibits app developers from selling iPhone apps through channels other than the App Store...."

Licenses to build next-generation 5G licenses to serve the public had not been built as Straight Path Spectrum claimed. $85 million of the fine "is suspended pending Straight Path's transfer or assignment of the licenses in the next 12 months."

"A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows Enbridge Energy Partners and Marathon Petroleum Corporation won't meet a previous deadline of December 31 to complete a sale. The companies will now have until March 31 to consider whether to walk away from an investment in the pipeline."

The pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer Partners. Protesters of the pipeline, who call themselves Water Protectors, have fought powerful forces against construction of the pipeline with notable and increasing success. They maintain it violates human and environmental and sovereign government rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Native American tribe, located in North and South Dakota.

"Latin America's largest construction company, Odebrecht, agreed with the U.S. Justice Department to pay a fine of up to $4.5 billion on Wednesday for having engaged in widespread bribery of government officials around the world. The agreement is the largest penalty in U.S. history under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977."

Exxon Mobil is a giant among both energy and chemical chemical companies. So far the company has successfully fought implementation of a 2014 ban on eight phthalates by the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC).

"The inaction "speaks to the power of Exxon to frighten federal agencies away from doing their jobs," as Earthjustice's Gartner put it. And that was before the company's CEO [Rex Tillerson] had a top government job[Trump nominee for Secretary of State]."

Energy Transfer Partners, owner of the pipeline, vows to complete the project, saying the Obama administration's refusal to approve the final leg of the pipeline under the Missouri River and close to the Standing Rock Sioux's lands is political. The tribe says it would endanger their sole water source and sacred sites.

"While the Friday decision does not put a final nail in the coffin, it still is of advantage to the demonstrators. Since there is a clause in the company's contract that allows investors to pull out starting Jan. 2, further delays - which the company estimates cause a loss of $20 million per day - could see many investors turning their back on the money-losing project."

Critics say users do not need more natural gas, that Sabal Trail can take their properties by eminent domain, and that it has violated multiple construction regulations designed to protect homeowners and the environment.

"Sabal Trail is a joint project of Spectra Energy Corp., NextEra Energy, Inc., and Duke Energy." There is a connection between the Sabal pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline because "Enbridge, which is a stakeholder in the Dakota Access pipeline, has announced plans to buy Spectra...."

"Seven Sioux tribes in the Dakotas are developing what would be an enormous collection of wind farms on six reservations scattered across what is generally rated as one of the windiest areas in the country." The tribes have done prliminary assessments but need more detailed studies before they can solicit investors. Previous efforts by the tribes for clean energy development have been hampered by investors not wanting to let the tribes "control their own energy resources."

One day before the previously announced deadline for protesters to leave the camp of Native Americans and environmental activists set up to block drilling for oil under a major source of water for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which has authority over the project, announced it will not permit the drilling. The Corps will look for alternative routes for the pipeline.

The tribe and its many supporters joyously celebrated the decision as a major victory after months of effort in the face of great difficulties, but the tribe's attorney warned it could still be overturned by the incoming Trump administration.

ChinaLabor Watch says wages are very low and living conditions in dormitories that house workers are very harsh. Families are separated by conditions of work and living accommodations. "Overtime can run to nearly three times the legal limit." Some of the most popular brand name toys, such as Barbie dolls, Thomas the Tank Engine Minis, and Fisher-Price Learn with Me Zebra Walker, are made in Chinese factories.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has today written to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe that the camp being used by protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline will be closed on December 5 and all occupants evicted. Tribe chairman Dave ArchambaultII has stated the tribe's resistance to the pipeline will continue.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the levels found are not risky for consumers, but some scientists say this is misleading because the data does not show effects of "regular, repeated consumption".

"Spinach, strawberries, grapes, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon were among the foods found with illegal pesticide residue levels. Even residues of chemicals long banned in the United States were found, including residues of DDT or its metabolites found in spinach and potatoes."

There was no data on glyphosate, a suspected carcinogen, "the most widely used herbicide in the world", and the most important ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup.

Tests by the Federal Department of Agriculture and private concerns also produced disturbing results and lack sufficient data to support safety claims. They raise the question whether regulations are designed more to protect producers of the pesticides than consumers of the foods.

The $3.7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners, runs through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. This oil pipeline has highlighted controversy between protesting Native Americans and environmental activists vs. corporations that stand to profit from fossil fuels, with accusations of violence against both sides.

The election of Donald Trump as incoming U.S. President has made Dakota Access owner Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren "100 percent sure that the pipeline will be approved". Trump has sizable investments in the project, and has spoken in favor of using America's large fossil fuel reserves, but has not commented on this particular pipeline.

Thousands of protesters planned nationwide protests starting yesterday, Nov. 15. They claim sacred sites and safety of water in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation are threatened by a potential leak in the pipeline. The pipeline is scheduled to go under Lake Oahe, the reservoir on which the Sioux depend for their water.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has final authority over construction of the pipeline. Sioux tribe Chair David Archambault wants the Corps to deny a permit to cross Lake Oahe and require the pipeline to be rerouted farther from Sioux lands.

For a a concise summary of the issues and legal actions, see nbc news Nov. 4.

For more detailed but fascinating information well worth your time, including history of relations between American Indian tribes--legally sovereign nations--and the U.S. government, see The Atlantic, Sept. 9. Of particular interest is the section on the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the land beneath the pipeline.

The Atlantic notes that "Of course, this history does not answer whose land it really is: American law still respects the underlying logic of the 'doctrine of discovery,' the idea that European Christians could lay claim to land if they were the first to document it. But it is in partial recognition of the painful history of colonial land grabs that modern federal law accords certain rights to Native groups. Since 1992, one of these rights could be described as the right to be consulted: Whenever a federal agency undertakes or approves a construction project, it must consult with local Native nations or tribes about whether sacred sites or places are nearby."

2013 update summarizes changes in standards and controversy over increasing
availability of products with the certification by making it easier to get
certified vs. maintaining more rigorous standards. Fair World Project offers
suggestions for resolving the conflict by making product labels more transparent
about percentage of ingredients that are certified.